


Larry.

by latewinternight



Category: The Durrells (TV)
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, Character Study, Drabble, Episode: s01e02, Family, Family Feels, Family Fluff, Gen, Major Character Injury, Minor Character Death
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-18
Updated: 2020-12-18
Packaged: 2021-03-11 04:35:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,066
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28149207
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/latewinternight/pseuds/latewinternight
Summary: Larry seeks for attention, they say. But he repulses a little when people around him get emotional.------------------------------------A small character study about Larry and what goes in his mind when he ruptures his appendix in season 1 episode 2.
Relationships: Lawrence "Larry" Durrell & Louisa Durrell
Kudos: 2





	Larry.

Larry, in his whole life, has been sensitive to even the most little of physical wounds (according to his mother). Usually, whenever he got injured, his mother and his three siblings ignored his whining until his screams tore their eardrums. But as far as Larry remembered, this didn’t happen every time, not at least his whole life, as his mother said. In fact, it started off after his father passed away. 

His father, even though looked like a tough man from the outside, was the warmest person Larry had ever met. He remembered when he was a child and once fell from a tree at school while writing a story in his small diary, his father tended to the small wounds on his leg. At that time, little Larry didn’t whine like his adult self. Because well, he didn’t want to make his father worry about him; he was a strong boy. And he knew that various small abrasions wouldn't kill him. But then one day his father didn’t come back home and Larry was left alone with a minor laceration on his hand with no one around who could tend to it. 

Years later, he somehow found himself on this island, Corfu, with his family except for his father. He was desperate to escape Bournemouth and its suffocation added with expectations by the society. He wanted to be a writer, not a god’s forsaken estate agent. But who knew that in a few days of his arrival in Corfu he would have a fight with his mother and would injure himself? So his mother already called him useless and upon that he had an accident while hunting for food. But this time he was whining unlike he did when his father was still alive. And as always, his mother and siblings were not paying attention. 

_But it really hurts!_

He clutched at the right side of his abdomen as a sharp pain rose from within the muscles. His mother was saying something about him being sensitive to even moderate pain.

_But this was not a moderate pain!_

“So suddenly it's bad to be sensitive?” he blurted out to his mother’s previous statement, as he shuffled around in pain in the old and broken living room chair. But she started talking to Leslie to even hear it. 

Maybe it was the pain or maybe it was the deliriousness caused by the pain that he suddenly remembered his father. He never imagined that this would happen, especially when he has probably ruptured his internal organ. But now he was desperately wishing that his dad was here and tending to his injury like he always did. 

A surge of nausea overcame him and he turned to his side to throw up whatever food and alcohol he had the previous night. It was not at all pretty. 

_Daddy!_

The pain was unbearable at this point and he was seeing dark spots around his vision. That is when he felt hands on his body. They weren’t warm and soothing like father’s but had an equal effect. And he recognized immediately to whom those hands belonged to.

_Mother._

As he was fading in and out of consciousness he heard snippets of his mother’s panic-induced talk. She was worried...because he was sick. He was getting the attention, but he didn’t like the worried tone of his mother.

* * *

When they reached the clinic he had no idea about, his pain was not ready to go down yet. He was being jostled around until to his little relief he was laid down on something. He was in agony, with his abdomen feeling like it will burst any minute. He found himself wishing that he would fall into unconsciousness instead.

* * *

_He was floating in the sea as the bright blue sky of Corfu shined above him. Nothing unusual. Just him and the sea._

“Larry?”

_The voice was hoarse but calm, also...familiar. And it made Larry turn his head to his side to see a tall figure standing on the seashore. Larry’s eyebrows furrowed as he removed his sunglasses._

_It was his father._

“Larry!” _father called again, with his warm smile plastered across his face._

_“Father?” Larry was more confused than ever but he was still intrigued and so he immediately started swimming towards the shore. Oh, how he missed his old man! At this moment all his rationality was thrown away into the sea as he was moving forward and it seemed he was near the seashore, but somehow his father seemed further away from where he was standing before. Still, Larry swam but the waves were somehow high today and it seemed a storm was about to come. And when he looked back at the shore, his father was gone._

“Father…” this one word softly escaped his dried lips and he opened his bleary eyes just to see the fragments of a plain room and the face of an unfamiliar man. Then he heard a familiar, more feminine voice speak, “Larry...Darling?” 

And that was it, he slipped into unconsciousness, again.

* * *

When he came to after some time, he heard his mother whisper, “Come on Larry, say something. You always say something.” 

And he did want to say something, to reassure her that he was fine but he was busy thinking about this void. A void that his father left after his death. He wondered if his old man was here then he wouldn’t have a ruptured appendix right now or maybe at least hobbyists wouldn’t operate on him. The void couldn’t be filled. But on a brighter side, other than the void if there was anything left after his father’s sad demise then it would be where he is right now. With his mother and siblings worried sick over him, because...they love him. 

So later when his mother again comes into his room and tells him that he got his first-ever earning from writing, his favorite thing, he softly replies, "I am a proper writer."

It would be an understatement that he didn't feel this surge of happiness within him when he saw her proud smile.

Maybe the void will never be filled but, at least he has his family and the adventures this island of Corfu has to bring. Also, he is the only breadwinner in the family now, apart from his mother's sorry excuse of a Widow's pension.

**Author's Note:**

> I just started watching this wonderful show and I am intrigued by how each character reveals something new about themselves as the story continues. But Larry's character has a special place in my heart and so I couldn't stop writing about him. I hope you all enjoyed the story :)


End file.
